What does the "commute" button actually do?

What does the "commute" button actually do? I bike commute a lot and I try to always click this button assuming that I could filter my activity logs for commutes. Well I've actually tried that and don't see that it is an option. So what does clicking that button do?

Comments

Here's what I'd like to do with a "commute" tag: My own feed is 10 commutes + 4-5 runs/rides for exercise each week. I worry that the commutes are spamming my followers. I'd love a feature where I could have only my exercise runs/rides, and not my commutes, show up in my followers' feeds.

I used to never log/Strava my bike commute miles. Then I started to so I could get a more complete picture of my total bike miles and I figured that commuting counted. But I didn't want my daily commutes to be showing up on the "Your Friends Have Logged Some Miles" emails that Strava sends out. So I would make all of my commutes Private so they wouldn't show be visible. I also marked them as commutes based on the logic in my original post. I later stopped marking the commutes as Private so I could get credit for them in various Challenges and goals, but I have continued to mark them as commutes. I think a useful result of the commute button, in addition to the ability to sort our activity logs for them that I mention in the OP, would be to exclude them in the "Your Friends Have Logged Some Miles" emails. Even exclude them from other people's activity feeds, because to me commutes imply that they are routine and unexciting and not worth sharing. Sort of a Private-Light setting like the Unlisted option for a Youtube video. The commute activity isn't necessarily private or hidden from view, but it is also not shared or broadcasted like a typical public activity.

Jeff K has made a much clearer statement of what I was hoping to say in my March 4 response, thanks Jeff! I don't want my activities labeled as "commutes" to appear on my followers' activity feeds. But I'm not concerned about them being private or for excluding a portion of a commute from a public segment match.

I agree to the previous. Commutes should not show up and spam followers, but they should count for km/miles in challenges and other overviews. Currently when I put them as private activities I don't see when I improved myself on segments or they won't count in challenges.

I think a great way to use the commute function would be to exclude commutes from followers feeds, but at the end of the week put something like "Will biked to work 4 out of 5 days this week". That would allow for kudos on biking to work, but not the worry of spamming folks with your everyday commute

Lots of comments! This might have been mentioned, but it would be great if rides tagged as Commutes could be tallied every month, and then I could easily submit the total to my employer for commute reimbursement/incentives. Would also make it easier to "compete" with other bike commuters for total miles, etc.

5 years this has been in discussion and it seems plenty of users would like to be able to utilise some functionality of the commute label.

I race, train and commute and all 3 ride labels are useful for tracking progress. I agree that commute could be seen as a nice to have reporting feature, but as the label exists, it seems strange to not add a bit of reporting to it:

Default as ride type

Stat on distance commuted

You could even set a default based on linking to a specific bike: I.E on bike A, set it as the commuter which could then default any rides on that bike to be labelled as a commute. This is already similar when uploading a virtual ride as "indoor".

Strava could even analyse the route, to spot a regular ride at regular times and auto detect its a commute ( similar to the Google maps user details)

We pay a lot for the service and it seems a little ask from the community on this one. Not everyone needs FTP, Avg power, KOM's and the like and for those of us that do, we also use our bikes for simply "getting to work" - some might only use Strava for the commute.... A little bit of feedback from the Strava team would be good to see if this will ever go anywhere.

I agree with a few above - i'd love to be able to filter my rides by those tagged with Commute just to see how many miles I've ridden and avoided driving this year. My commute is 24-28 miles each way, so I use it as training so don't want it to be removed from my activity feed or monthly average speed/miles total etc. If this is the case then I just won't use the commute button, I've only been using it recently as I was hoping to find an option to let me filter it, as, like others above, it's quite motivating to know how much diesel I've saved!

Also agreed with above - I might not take the most direct route home so as to add in more miles, so removing commute distance from totals doesn't make that much sense for those of us who do that.

Any updates Strava? I realise this feed is over 2 years old. I'd also like my commutes to be hidden from feed but for my milage to count towards my yearly total. Is this actually going to become an option?

Totally agree with what is written above. I don't want to spam my followers with my commute activities but want them to be taken into account for the Challenges. So I tag my commutes as private, wait for a week, and them then tag them again as public activities. Not really convenient.

How often do you use Strava to record your commutes (#/week)?

At least 10/week

What are some reasons you would NOT upload your commute data to Strava?

Don't want to spam my followers on the activity feed

What would encourage you to track more commutes on Strava?

If followers had the choice not to show commute activity on the activity feed page

What info would you like to see about your Commutes on Strava?

At least milage but plenty of other statistics suggested above

How would you like commutes to be shown in the Feed?

I don't want my commutes to be shown in the feed but followers should be able to see them on my profile page as they are tagged as private activities

1. Get all stats/screens that have options to include, exclude or see commutes exclusively

2. Have commutes as a column in the My Activities table

This data is invaluable when trying to get legislators to look at bikes/peds as part of the entire Transportation picture. And given you already make strava data available to city/county/state planners, sure would be good them to know know what the commuter routes are vs the recreational routes. Would really help channel transport dollars into making the commuter routes safer, and avoid the "screw the lycra crowd" arguments from the auto-only dinosaurs.

Can anyone tell me how the commute tag effects calories? If I tag my ride as commute it changes the amount of calories burned. I know the calories burned is an estimate either way but whether I'm riding to work or just riding I'm still going the same distance, climbing the same amount...all in a certain time/at a certain speed. The fact that I just happen to end up at work should have no effect on the amount of energy I used to do the ride.

I agree with most o the comments above but also think Strava could use this data as backing for cycling promotion... bike to work campaigns, pushes for improved city infrastructure etc. could even be a cool social campaign.

The commute option is a bit of a relic of a former feature, and doesn't serve a specific function with any Strava features right now. I think we've kept it around because we'd like to do something more with that tag in the future. Do you have any ideas for how you think this tag could be leveraged on Strava?